When 17-year-old Sean Mohammed drops in on the half pipe to start skateboarding, he thinks of his father, who told Mohammed he started skating when he first moved to Queens from the West Indies 20 years ago and encouraged his son to do the same.

Walking the tree-lined streets of Richmond Hill, Queens, it’s easy to feel like you’ve taken the A train to the West Indies. Women flow past in colorful saris, Calypso music pounds from passing cars and Guyanese flags hang out of apartment windows. Newsstands sell papers from Georgetown, the capital. One restaurant promises to serve “real back home taste.” But for all the reminders of home this neighborhood offers its 17,600 Guyanese residents, it’s sometimes not enough.